Oddly enough, 3/5ths of New York's old starting rotation retired within 10 days of each other. McKamey on 5/1/14, Bennett on 5/6/14 and Bugg on 5/11/14. Bennett is a HOF lock, McKamey is at 60% and Bugg at 18%.

EOCF wrote:Oddly enough, 3/5ths of New York's old starting rotation retired within 10 days of each other. McKamey on 5/1/14, Bennett on 5/6/14 and Bugg on 5/11/14. Bennett is a HOF lock, McKamey is at 60% and Bugg at 18%.

Phone call from Bennett to Bugg on 5/10/14. "Hey man, McKamey and I are out here fishing. You should join us."

Ended up changing my mind about 3 times at the last minute on who to target with my two picks. Pretty happy with the two I got although I was really hoping to get either Sweeting or Furlong at 3. But Windy City made the trade and stole him from me, I think.

#3 - P Julian Bower - Reminds me of Brad Conley from a while back, who I didn't like at the time but turned out much better than I expected. Hopefully Bower will be similar.#7 - 2B Philip Weiss - Very similar hitter to Steven Bell, but should be able to play an above average CF. And once he is developed, Schild will be older and ready to move off CF.#52 - LF Kevin Rollins - Very happily surprised to get him here. Looks like a left handed version of Puga and at worst a platoon guy who will have very good OBP.#57 - 2B Kyle Greer - Actually targeted him as a scrub, but his 69 RA could be converted to an easier position and be usable as a super sub. Very nice.

I had Fries lined up to be picked at 3 for a long time, but switched at the last minute. Development of his SY will be the key for him and I'll be following to see how that goes for andujar. If he develops well, I could have made a bad mistake passing on him.

Very solid draft class this year IMO. About 7 pitchers that I really liked and several very good defensive players. Saskatchewan took all the SS.

mhardy_03 wrote:Ended up changing my mind about 3 times at the last minute on who to target with my two picks. Pretty happy with the two I got although I was really hoping to get either Sweeting or Furlong at 3. But Windy City made the trade and stole him from me, I think.

#3 - P Julian Bower - Reminds me of Brad Conley from a while back, who I didn't like at the time but turned out much better than I expected. Hopefully Bower will be similar.#7 - 2B Philip Weiss - Very similar hitter to Steven Bell, but should be able to play an above average CF. And once he is developed, Schild will be older and ready to move off CF.#52 - LF Kevin Rollins - Very happily surprised to get him here. Looks like a left handed version of Puga and at worst a platoon guy who will have very good OBP.#57 - 2B Kyle Greer - Actually targeted him as a scrub, but his 69 RA could be converted to an easier position and be usable as a super sub. Very nice.

I had Fries lined up to be picked at 3 for a long time, but switched at the last minute. Development of his SY will be the key for him and I'll be following to see how that goes for andujar. If he develops well, I could have made a bad mistake passing on him.

Very solid draft class this year IMO. About 7 pitchers that I really liked and several very good defensive players. Saskatchewan took all the SS.

My 3rd pick was a 2B too, so all the MIF in this draft! Actually, SS and 2B made up the majority of the top 15 or so on my list this season, as I was targetting it pretty hard.

One of Sweeting or Furlong was going #1, that was for sure. In my talks with Potomac, I knew he was targetting pitching, so if I'd taken Sweeting, and Potomac hadn't traded the #2, you might have ended up with Furlong. Taking Furlong became much more difficult when I knew I was handing Sweeting to Windy City. Then, at first, I started to regret it when I saw that I had taken a 94 RA SS at #10 and a 81 RA SS at #25 (a.k.a. 89 RA 2B)....that, with Sweeting would have been a very solid haul. But, Furlong actually surprised me and made himself even more worth taking.

#1 SS Dana Furlong - 20 - Elite Slugging with good DI and CN, his BA had worried me pre-draft, showing just 38 potential, but he was a misscout and he know shows a 48 under my full scouting. Then 93/80/68 is a rare combo on defense. I usually get range or glove, but not both together...and I don't know that I've even had a SS in this league who was a legitimate threat with a bat...

#10 SS Amos Roberts - 21 - 94 RA at SS, most likely will end up as a 100 RA 2B, which will give me 76, 100, 93, 78 RA accross the infield (1B, 2B, SS, 3B) with solid gloves all around, so very pleased with how my defense is shaping up.

#20 2B Norman Harrison - 20 - Strong DI and good BA makes him another solid OBP option for my team. Average range at 2B, but with all the hard positions well covered, he will shift to 1B and provide strong defense there.

#25 SS Robert Rosales - 20 - 81 RA at SS makes him a plus defender, or would be even better at 2B. I didn't expect to grab a 2nd 90+ RA SS in the draft, so I had hoped to pull either Mroz or Rosales in the 2nd round and move to 2B to complete my middle infield with Furlong. Now he will either be trade bait or an excellent infield super sub.

#49 P Russell Mason - 18 - Some FI, good SY. I don't expect alot out of him, but with my defense, he might have a shot at being a decent reliever.

I've got my defense settled and plenty of OBP in my future lineup. I just need a little more slugging, which should be easier to find with LF and DH being my 2 lineup holes for the future. I've just got Sterling in the Lows for SP prospects, but he'll fit in well with the defense. All in all, not a bad position to be in after just the 3rd draft of this rebuild.

I must say, I normally cringe when teams trade top picks to Windy City and/or Bayside for a plethora of picks, but I think Bloomington actually made out very well in that trade. High SY SP, Elite RA SS, another SS who could be an elite defender at 2B a decent C option, and still has 2 more 1st rounders to follow. It's gonna suck when he, Vegas, and I are all fighting for the playoff positions in a few seasons.

Dbacksfan72 wrote:I must say, I normally cringe when teams trade top picks to Windy City and/or Bayside for a plethora of picks, but I think Bloomington actually made out very well in that trade. High SY SP, Elite RA SS, another SS who could be an elite defender at 2B a decent C option, and still has 2 more 1st rounders to follow. It's gonna suck when he, Vegas, and I are all fighting for the playoff positions in a few seasons.

Agree that our deal with Bloomington definitely worked out for both of us. I got 1 high level guy (although was upset that it wasn't Sweeting), and he got several 2nd tier guys who all will fit into his build well. He already had some studs, just needed more depth to fill in the holes, and it seems like he got that.

Needless to say that I did not expect my team to take a step back this year, let alone one as large as they have. It looks like Jacksonville will enjoy the #1 lottery chance... and two additional first round picks. Oops. But odds are there'd be no shortstops like there were this year.

I figured that improving my infield defense and our soft division would have had the Aces knocking on the playoffs door. I was worried that I'd be tempted to bring up the handful of guys I have who are close late in the season to make a legitimate run at it. Apparently not.

The first real wave comes next season. Five or six guys coming. That'll be the test.

Uwbadger12000 wrote:My team is playing like a steaming dump right now. The only thing I have going for me is that I have the easiest schedule out of the three...

Your team has over achieved like crazy this year. The game definitely compensates for that at various points and it picked a bad time to do it. You're right in the mix though. Even if you miss out this year, there are clearly four capable squads in Dean now.